Fusion GPS Still Researching Potential Trump Connections to Russia

“Glenn’s a relentlessly digging sort of guy,” Tim Burger, a friend and former colleague, told the Times of Glenn Simpson, a founder of the research firm behind the Trump dossier that claimed to detail Russia’s interference and the Trump campaign’s complicity. “If there is a document out there about anything, he will find it.”

The dossier, published by BuzzFeed last January, was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and contained explosive allegations the Russian government had been “cultivating, supporting, and assisting” Trump for years and had gained compromising information about the real estate mogul.

Fusion GPS’s research on Trump was initially funded by the conservative outlet The Washington Free Beacon, but that agreement ended when Trump won the Republican Party nomination. Law firm Perkins Coie retained Fusion GPS on behalf of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign to continue the probe, and Steele shared some of his findings with the FBI after he reportedly found a series of contacts between Trump associates and Russians during the campaign centered around the DNC hacking.

“He felt he was witnessing a national security crime in progress,” Simpson told the Times via email. “I did not object, and did not ask for permission from our clients. Chris was the national security professional, so I deferred to him.”

Simpson, who has gone before three congressional committees regarding the Russia probe, was a longtime reporter before starting Fusion. He has been questioned regarding his ethics, but has “bristled at the idea that the dossier is some kind of liberal fever dream,” according to the Times.

“More than a year has gone by since these memos were produced,” Simpson said. “I have not become aware of any disinformation.”